About
The National Research and Development Strategy identifies the need to create 'centres and networks of excellence' in science and technology, including in the social sciences, as a key component of the human capital and transformation dimensions of government policy. It is envisaged that such centres will stimulate sustained distinction in research while simultaneously generating highly qualified human resource capacity in order to impact meaningfully on key national and global areas of knowledge.
The seven centres that passed the stringent test are:
While recognising that the Department of Science and Technology may from time to time create additional centres of excellence, in order to meet its own specific strategic objectives, the National Research Foundation is the main implementer of this strategic initiative.
DST Centre of Excellence in Biomedical TB Research
Research at this Centre includes all aspects of TB diagnosis, testing & treatment. This includes the molecular and clinical point of view as well as genomic and proteomic studies of the TB Bacillus and its interaction with humans. With the third highest incidence rate and second highest mortality rate in the world, South Africa is facing a tuberculosis (TB) problem of such magnitude that this disease has been declared a national health emergency.
The rampant HIV co-epidemic plaguing this country has exacerbated the problem enormously. Although some improvements could be made in controlling TB through reform of existing control programmes, it is widely acknowledged that a quantum leap in the quality of tools for the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of TB will be required if there is to be any hope at all of eradicating this devastating disease.
Contacts: Prof Paul van Helden
Tel (012) 938 9401
Prof Val Mizrahi
Tel: (011) 489 9370
Co-Hosted by Stellenbosch University and the University of the Witwatersrand.
DST Centre of Excellence in Invasion Biology
This Centre is concerned with the biology of invasive species. Special attention is paid to the impact that invasive species have on southern Africa's biodiversity, agriculture and ecotourism. The key issues and questions that are being addressed are: - Invasions and diversity - What are the determinants of invasion success and how do these vary through space?
- Invasions and ecosystem function - What are the impacts of invasive alien species and the consequences of remediation attempts?
- Invasions and ecosystem services - How can human resource requirements and conservation be integrated into a dynamic landscape planning framework that will enable long-term persistence of diversity whilst maintaining ecosystem services on which humans rely?
- Invasions and policy formulation - Ensuring that scientific information is made available for rational decision-making regarding invasive species, the actions to be taken to address invasions, particularly in a local context and the prioritisation of such actions given a well-developed set of alternative scenarios.
Contact: Prof Steven Chown
Tel: (021) 808 2385
The DST Centre of Excellence in Invasion Biology Website
Hosted by Stellenbosch University.
DST Centre of Excellence in Strong Materials
This Centre studies materials such as hard metals, metal alloys, metal oxides, ceramics, diamond and diamond-like materials and composites including carbon nanotubes. Strong materials retain their distinctive properties under extreme conditions and thus have wide applications in the manufacturing and mining industries in South Africa and abroad.
It is extremely important to improve the properties of currently used materials for higher efficiency and cost reduction. In the longer term, the burgeoning fields of advanced strong materials being newly synthesised or in the process of further development are of great potential commercial value. This Centre will address both objectives and its various specific programmes fall within an area identified as being of major importance in the Advanced Manufacturing Technology Strategy of the South African Government.
Contact: Prof Darrell Comins
Tel: (011) 717 6812
Hosted by the University of the Witwatersrand
DST Centre of Excellence in Birds as Keys to Biodiversity Conservation at the Percy FitzPatrick Institute
This Centre acknowledges the outstanding contribution made by the Percy FitzPatrick Institute to the understanding of, amongst other things, biodiversity conservation. The research programme will be based on two inter-linked themes, understanding and maintaining biodiversity. The first investigates the composition and structure of biodiversity, the processes responsible for its generation and how relationships between organisms and their environments influence the form and functioning of biological systems.
The second builds on the strong theoretical and empirical foundation provided by the first to assess, predict and manage human impacts, with emphasis on understanding dynamic links that lead to biodiversity loss, developing effective strategies to stem this loss and discovering ways to use components of biodiversity sustainability to the benefit of South Africa.
Contact: Prof Morné du Plessis
Tel: (021) 650 3290
Hosted by the University of Cape Town
DST Centre of Excellence in Catalysis
Research at this Centre focuses on chemical catalysis (homo- and hetero-) mainly for the conversion of gas to liquid fuels and for downstream processing aimed at adding value to bulk chemicals. With the manufacturing sector being the largest contributor to South Africa's GDP and with chemical manufacturing the largest single contributor to the South African manufacturing sector, chemical processing is recognised as a distinct field for targeted innovation initiatives as emphasised in the National Research and Development Strategy - and catalysis lies at the heart of 90 % of all chemical transformation processes.
Contact: Prof Jack Fletcher
Tel: (021) 650 4433
The DST Centre of Excellence in Catalysis Website
Hosted by the University of Cape Town
DST Centre of Excellence in Tree Health Biotechnology at FABI
This Centre acknowledges the outstanding contribution made by the Forestry and Agriculture Biotechnology Institute (FABI) to the field of biotechnology as applied to trees. This Centre will focus on the field of tree health, which is of tremendous importance, both nationally and internationally, yet which is not particularly well known outside the agricultural and forestry domain.
Other than being highly relevant to South Africa, a country that depends heavily on agriculture and forestry, this field has the attraction of being strongly multidisciplinary. This is because the environment, the inherent nature of trees themselves and a wide range of organisms which impact negatively upon them, crucially affect tree health. Thus the fields of silviculture, agronomy, genetics, plant pathology, microbiology, entomology, molecular genetics and others are all important and relevant to this domain. The proposed Centre will seek to integrate research in these fields.
Contact: Prof Mike Wingfield
Tel: (012) 420 3938/3939
Hosted by the University of Pretoria
The Centre of Excellence in Epidemiological Modelling and Analysis
Research at this Centre is dedicated to modelling of disease transmission and progression, focusing on South Africa's major health challenges. Epidemiology is a quantitative, interdisciplinary science using mathematical modelling and dynamical analysis to provide patterns of disease progression, in space and time, at population and within-hosts level, to identify the principal causes of diseases and to provide health policy makers with a sound scientific basis for their decisions. The research projects are all fuelled by the need to alleviate the effects of major diseases currently affecting people in South Africa, and in Africa as a whole, in particular the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
The projects and key issues being addressed are: - Modelling and analysis of data on HIV/TB interaction and development of a comprehensive TB/HIV database.
- Modelling of the impact of male circumcision on HIV transmission.
- Modelling of the dynamics of HIV virus on the cellular level.
- Estimation of HIV incidence from cohort studies and cross-sectional analysis.
- Vaccine modelling and effect of rolling-out ARV therapy.
- Mathematical modelling of epidemics in populations and modelling of malaria control.
Contact: Prof John Hargrove, Tel 021 808 2893, hosted by Stellenbosch University.
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Nominations of potential candidates for the Technology Innovation Agency (TIA) Board of Directors
